@Home partners with on-line programmers >BY Shira McCarthy, Associate Editor-News

@Home Corp. has forged relationships with 60 content entities that will provide programming for its @Home high-speed cable modem network, which was first launched over Tele-Communications Inc.'s Fremont, Calif., network last week (see related story on page 3).

@Home, a consortium of multiple systems operators TCI, Comcast Corp., and Cox Communications and venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, has come under fire during the last year for delaying its service rollouts. When TCI, the original MSO partner in @Home, first announced the service in May 1995, it said deployment would begin in early 1996. Despite last week's rollout in Fremont, TCI is at least four months behind schedule in its @Home deployment in Sunnyvale, Calif.

"@Home has run into a lot of problems with its infrastucture," said Boyd Peterson, telecommunications analyst at The Yankee Group in Boston. "It came out with a business plan not knowing if the underlying infrastructure would be able to handle it, and while it was good on paper, the network has run into problems out in the field."

Comcast and Cox joined as partners in June, boosting @Home's reach to 40% of U.S. households.

As participants in @Home's Media Development Program, content providers will have access to @Home's developer Web site and other @Home tools to develop programming for the network. Media companies tapped by @Home include Discovery Channel Online, HotWired, USA Today, The New York Times Electronic Media Co. and Knight Ridder Inc.